| Scoreboard |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Viewers (million) | 24.25 | 10.86 | 6.78 | 6.43 | 3.80 | .74 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 8.9/23 | 2.7/7 | 2.7/7 | 2.2/6 | 1.5/4 | 0.3/1 |
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-34 | 7.2/21 | 1.6/5 | 2.4/7 | 1.7/5 | 1.7/5 | 0.4/1 |
Two hours of American Idol fueled FOX to a dominant victory on Wednesday night. CBS was a distant second in total viewers, and ABC was second in adults 18-49. Sadly, neither Life or Life on Mars reversed the trend towards inevitable doom.
American Idol dominated the 8pm hour, but the second hour of Tuesday’s The Biggest Loser was pushed to Wednesday due to the presidential address fared well in the demos against repeats on CBS and ABC (and the CW, too).
American Idol dominated the 9pm hour too, though it was a more competitive hour against new episodes of Lost and Criminal Minds (and Life). Lost which had risen nicely in the demos last week (to a 5.1 among 18-49s) dropped back down to the two weeks ago level when it drew a 4.4. But last week it wasn’t up against American Idol and two weeks ago it was. So it looks pretty consistent. Lost was remarkable consistent numerically for both half hours.
NBC’s Life was low, perhaps series low (at least on a Wednesday airing) dropping to 4.87 million average viewers. It’s 18-49 demo numbers were actually up over last week, but not enough to provoke any hope among the rational. But I liked last night’s episode and Crews’ long distance relationship with tech support in India.
ABC’s Life on Mars was also low. Don’t let the numbers fool you as there was six minutes of Lost in the 10pm hour that will be removed in the finals. Unlike Lost, Life on Mars’ half hourly numbers weren’t consistent at all. In the first half hour (including the six minutes of Lost) it averaged 6.57 million and a 2.5 rating with 18-49s, but in the second half hour it averaged a mere 4.53 million and a 1.5/4 among 18-49s. It lost to a repeat of Law & Order on NBC, and of course CSI: NY which dominated the hour.
Last Wednesday’s overnight numbers.
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | Viewers (Millons) | 18-49 Rating/Share | 18-34 Rating/Share |
| 8:00 | FOX | American Idol | 23.68 | 8.5/23 | 6.7/21 |
| NBC | Biggest Loser | 8.73 | 3.3/9 | 2.8/9 | |
| CBS | New Adventures of Old Christine (R) | 5.83 | 1.5/4 | 0.9/3 | |
| ABC | LOST (R) | 4.97 | 1.7/5 | 1.4/5 | |
| CW | Privileged (R) | 0.90 | 0.4/1 | 0.5/2 | |
| 8:30 | CBS | Gary Unmarried (R) | 5.99 | 1.7/4 | 1.0/3 |
| 9:00 | FOX | American Idol | 24.82 | 9.4/23 | 7.7/21 |
| CBS | Criminal Minds | 13.98 | 3.4/8 | 2.0/5 | |
| ABC | LOST | 9.82 | 4.4/11 | 4.1/11 | |
| NBC | Life | 4.87 | 1.7/4 | 1.3/4 | |
| CW | 90210 (R) | 0.57 | 0.2/1 | 0.4/1 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | CSI: NY | 12.69 | 3.2/9 | 2.0/6 |
| NBC | Law & Order (R) | 5.71 | 1.7/5 | 1.3/4 | |
| ABC | Life on Mars | 5.55 | 2.0/6 | 1.7/5 |
Shows are sorted by viewers in each time slot.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Definitions:
Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.
Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.
Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)
Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.
For more information see Numbers 101.
Pretty strong ratings for Lost considering it was up against AI.(#2 in 18-49) I wonder if ABC will move it away though from 9pm.
ABC will not move Lost, is still the #1 scripted show.
Fuck, i don’t know how so many people see that crap called ‘American Idol’. That’s shit TV…
Yeah Lost is staying where it is.
It’s holding up incredibly well against AI and I’m not sure anything else ABC has would do anything even close to that. Plus I don’t think Lost would, at this point, do massively better in another timeslot to warrant ABC moving it.
lifes ratings are so bad. it makes me so depressed. u guys go on about heroes and chuck but life is soooooooooooo much better.
well, abc has a bad habit of moving lost around, thats why i thought that.
and if you look at the younger demos. Lost beats “Criminal Minds” hands down.
I really like Life but there’s just no way to spin those numbers into a positive. To hit what looks like a series low (in this timeslot at least) with a Biggest Loser lead-in, and Biggest Loser is pretty much NBC’s biggest show at this point is bad. Really bad. American Idol or no American Idol.
Lost ratings are steady unlike Heroes
Another strong showing for “Lost”, which has remained remarkably consistant in viewers this season (aside from the 1+ million they lose when head to head with AI). But we all know that “Lost” gains these viewers back on DVR. Does that make a difference when it comes to ad revenue? If so, perhaps they should move “Lost” to 8pm. It is where it started after all. It’s also where they should have kept it. I firmly beleive that the current viewer base for “Lost” will remain with the show until the end.
I still can’t believe how so many people tune into AI after eight seasons. It’s just so stale now in my opinion, yet viewers keep coming back. I just don’t get it.
Hoping for a decent wrap-up for LoM, but showrunners these days seem unable to not end on a cliffhanger, no matter how certain the axe-swinging may be.
I think Lost did great considering it went up against American Idol. I for one can’t wait to watch it on DVR when I get off from work.
I think LOST did fine too, considering it was up against Idol, as it will be going forward starting March 11 anyway.
Cool, how exactly is Lost the #1 rated show?
Jimmy, it is the #1 scripted show in the demos for the 9pm hour. That’s like throwing it 60 miles per hour straight down the middle to Alex Rodriguez on a steroids regimen for the PR flacks at ABC
As I have been saying ever since January 13 when it was announced that ‘American Idol’ and ‘Lie to Me’ would be switching, ABC should move ‘Lost’ to 8:00. It is somewhat randomly playing a repeat the week after next. When it comes back, it should be at 8:00.
^ The #1 scripted show last night was Lost.
wednesdays remain the prime spot for a fall 2009 attack by any of the nets. cbs is the only one that has a real foothold here, and even they have that weak first hour with christine/gary. it just seems there is the most to be gained on this night with the least competition. over the last few seasons wednesday has seemed to be the most challenging night for most of the nets to get anything to strongly take hold. the threat of idol returning hasnt kept tuesday from being agressively scheduled and competitive, so i dont think thats an explanation.
Life is SO good! I don’t understand. People generally like procedurals and when appears one that’s a bit different and that actually has quality they don’t see it. I just hope NBC finds a way to renew life or move it to another network. I know what people are gonna say: it’s a long shot. It is, but the show deserves it.
Ricardo, had it been crafted as a cable show from the outset, Life fits extremely nicely with the whole USA network “characters welcome” theme. Sadly, quirky characters on broadcast don’t always (ever?) go over as well, and I suspect for monetary reasons it will be very difficult to move the show off broadcast to cable.
Moving the new Lost episodes to 8pm might on the surface work for the new Lost epsiodes only, but it’s not going to improve the night for ABC overall.
Cool, actually Criminal Minds is the #1 rated show of the night. Lost was the #1 rated show in the demo.
“Life” just signed its death warrant.
“American Idol?” It signed the death warrants of the 12 would-be singers who performed last night. Ye-gads. If I had a cat, it would have been caterwauling along with all of them.
Robert, don’t you think they could cut the costs a bit to make it fin in USA?
And House is a kind of quirky but still has success. I would blame it being on NBC with KR as a lead in most of the time and the lack of promotion.
Ricardo, no, I don’t think so. It’s often discussed but I’ve never seen a case where a broadcast network moved original episodes off the broadcast network and on to cable. It never happens. I suspect the reason is $$$. I don’t think the actors, producers, crew, etc involved with the show can easily agree about how much less money they will make.
while there is always a first time, I don’t think it will be now. Someday, perhaps soon, there will be a day when you don’t necessarily need to cut costs to move to cable and then things will be different. But this is not that day. Do you want to inherit a show where everyone involved with the show just took a pay cut any more than they wanted to take a pay cut? Not likely.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent!
Not to give hope to fans of most shows, but didn’t NBC move new episodes of Law & Order: CI to USA? That was a special circumstance where the syndication money probably made up for it, and it shouldn’t be seen as something that will happen with Life or any other failing show, but it has happened and recently as well.
Edit: Bill beat me.
Old guy: 1
Youth: Many
let me amend that to it has never happened with a show that didn’t succeed for five or six seasons on broadcast and wasn’t part of an already successful franchise.
You’re right. The problem is that I love LIFE. It’s awesome. Last night’s episode with the hit-woman was awesome. It’s hard to let go.
Lost is solid. It gets it’s demo numbers even against Idol. Lots of loyal viewers tune in weekly. I say just stick with it at 9. They are going to need it to help launch The Unsuals in a few weeks. God knows ABC needs something good to come out of these mid season replacements because…
Life on Mars is done after this run. Along with the other holes in ABC’s lineup they need to hope that Cupid, Castle and or The Unusuals stick because if not they are going to end up ordering 10 new shows next year to replace all the junk on the air right now.
Life is a goner as well. I’m surprised it’s lasted this long. I don’t see NBC sending anything to USA. USA has had great success with how it’s introuducing new shows. Everything is clicking. Why put a failing show on?
American Idol? I don’t get it. Some of the worst tv i’ve seen this year yet, I can’t turn it off if it’s on. I guess that’s the appeal. I just wish it would only be on 2 hours a week so other shows had a chance to be shown.
Robert,
The Mentalist has a “quirky” character in Thomas Jane, but of course, he’s on CBS.
Actually, there have been 8 shows that started on broadcast and moved to cable. Granted, only 2 were scripted: L&O:CI and Futurama.
http://thefutoncritic.com/rant.aspx?id=20081008
Holly et al — normally I too am very much the literal-ist, so I don’t take offense at people taking me literally. But let me amend it yet again:
no scripted, live action show that was suffering badly in the ratings after its first season or two has EVER moved to cable.
Does Futurama really count? I mean, it’s not like it was brought back as a regular series, just several 2 hour movies were ordered.
Robert, Well, OK then
If NBC ever needed more proof to move Chuck and Heroes to Wednesdays, they should look at the overnights from those two days this week. Chuck didn’t do much worse than Biggest Loser against tougher competition from all the networks. On Wednesdays, it would only have to take on American Idol. (and not until January) Heroes would have tougher sledding, but that show has a large DVR viewing audience, so the numbers, at worst, would only go down a bit. Not to mention, Heroes would only have to compete against Lost for one season.
The Biggest Loser could lose half of its audience and it would still turn a profit for NBC, so Mondays would work just fine for it. NBC wouldn’t drop down to 5th.
Patrick Murphy, sadly for all Chuck fans (including me) your info is wrong. Chuck did MUCH worse than the Biggest Loser in the demos. However, Chuck does do better than Knight Rider which had typically aired in that slot.
The moving stuff around notion seems dumb to me because 1.) NBC has to air something on Mondays! and 2.) putting Heroes against Lost seems insane.
I don’t understand how LOST drops when it is up against American Idol. I can’t see people who watch LOST, also be the same people who watch American Idol too. Especially with LOST being in its fifth season, the remaining viewers are the ones who are sticking with it no matter what. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. LOST is one of the best scripted show on television and American Idol is reality garbage.
Adam Lambert brought in the viewers.
Biggest Loser 8.73 3.3/9 2.8/9
Chuck 6.47 2.2/6 1.8/5
OK, Chuck does worse, but the point is still true. Aside from Idol, Wednesdays competition is nothing compared to Mondays, where Chuck has to compete against House, Dancing with the Stars, and The Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother, the last pairing of which has a huge crossover audience with Chuck. If you switch the two shows, NBC is still in 4th place on Mondays but turning a much better profit with a cheaper show. Chuck would also have the advantage of being a September-premiered first-run show for that slot, assuming the other networks stay put with their popular shows. (If House moves back to Wednesdays, the sledding gets tougher, but no worse than it is now.)
As for Heroes…
LOST 9.82 4.4/11 4.1/11
Heroes 6.92 3.4/8 3.2/9
Granted, Heroes against Lost might be insane, but Heroes will get slammed, no matter which night you put it on. The only other option would be to pair it with Medium and place both on Sunday nights once football is over.
NBC doesn’t have a single show that can compete with the Monday night lineups on the other three networks. Shows where they want to grow their audiences should not be put in those slots. Just concede the night with Deal or No Deal, Dateline, whatever, and be done with it.
Kyle, some people do still have to share the TV with other family members. I know, it’s a rarity in this day and age, but it does happen.
Kyle, it doesn’t mean those viewers aren’t watching LOST…they just aren’t watching it LIVE. American Idol is more disposable fare and something that can be ruined within five minutes of being at the watercooler the next day…plus, if you’re a fan, you can only vote right after the show, so participation is impossible if you’re watching the episodes days after the fact.
Also, Kyle…lots of people like to dabble in both reality and scripted shows. Here’s my favorite shows currently on television:
Breaking Bad
Mad Men
LOST
30 Rock
Survivor
Don’t immediately quantify reality with “stupid” when some of it has been incredibly innovative and allows for the most exciting drama on television. And face it, practically everybody watches at least one reality show, whether it be the male that complains about them and then downs Mythbusters marathons or the females that call network reality television “pointless” and then sit in front of VH1 all day.
I’m frustrated! Hi everyone. I read here often. This is my first post.
It’s about Life. I like Life… a lot. However, I do NOT wonder why the ratings are so low. I’m assuming there are many more people like me, regarding Life. Here’s my Life experience…
The first year it was on I never even heard of it. Never even noticed it in the TV listings.
The second year I noticed it in the listing at the beginning of this TV season. Had no idea what it was about. Maybe it’s a game show? A soap opera type of thing? I had no clue, and still didn’t watch it, not right away anyhow.
About 8 weeks into this TV season, and out of boredom, I decided to find out what this show Life is about. I watched my first episode.
It’s a cop show!
It’s great! Love it! The characters are interesting and fun. The actors are interesting and fun. The storylines are… you guessed it… interesting and fun!
Now if only we could get several million other people to “discover” Life as I did.
And yes indeed, the main character Charlie would fit perfectly at USA with their characters welcome line!
Perhaps the show should be advertised on USA during other cop/detective type shows? Like during Monk and Psych, for example? I believe there is a strong probability that people that like Monk, Psych and other cop shows will like Life too.
Long live Life!
In a random change of pace I want to (somewhat) applaud NBC when it comes to Life.
A lot of people talk about the fact that networks never take a chance with shows like Life that feature ‘quirky characters’ but to their credit NBC took the chance and have stuck with it and are at least letting it finish its run, which is more than a lot of networks would have done. The problem is the fact that this and Pushing Daisies (another ‘quirky characters’ show) failed to find an audience might very well mean networks won’t take the chance again.
Of course I still give a lot of weight to the theory that Life flopped because it was on NBC who seem to have the opposite of a magic touch as of late.
“no scripted, live action show that was suffering badly in the ratings after its first season or two has EVER moved to cable.”
“The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.” NBC to Lifetime. On NBC, it was like The Days and Nights of Molly Dead.
What do I win? A DVD box set of some J.J. Abrams’ non-garbage? An autographed photo of Damian Lewis? My own personalized insult-o-gram from Simon Cowell?
Robert, maybe you and the rest of us Life fans could start a group, we could call ourselves the “Lifesavers”. I recommend you as president
Bobbi,
I knew about Life only because it followed Bionic Woman. It got no publicity at the time; only when it started to beat BW in the ratings did the show actually start to get noticed.
I bet if you did a survey of the posters and asked them what “Life” was, they would give you the response you initially gave.
Riff: I’ll see if we can get someone at FOX to hook you up w/the insult-o-gram. Now amended to: “no scripted, live action show that was suffering badly in the ratings after its first season or two has EVER moved to cable since the 1980s!”
Andrea, it is a great name, and while I enjoy the show, if I’m NBC, for all the right reasons, I kill it dead. I think that thinking probably makes me a lousy presidential candidate. It doesn’t make sense on NBC, and though I’d LOVE to see it on USA, I don’t want to lead anything that in reality is tantamount to “Damian Lewis must take a pay cut!”
Privileged rerun tops 90210 rerun!
On Life moving to cable, would the cast have to take a pay cut? Not knowing how much anyone on the show is getting paid obviously makes that question hard to answer but no one involved in the show is really a major star name, so its hard to imagine any of them commanding huge pay checks. If you cut the episode orders down from 20-something to 12-15 and continue to pay everyone per episode obviously they’re going to take a pay cut but they’d be doing less work. Is there really that big an earnings gap between cable and network television?
And at the risk of adding more fire to the ‘save Life’ campaign, is a DirectTV like deal out of the question? I mean that in terms of USA and NBC sharing the production costs with NBC airing Life over the summer or from midseason on Friday night as they do with Friday Night Lights? Although I guess that would depend on how much NBC like the show…
Not to mock any of you desperate fans (ok, maybe just a little), I think we should have a pre-set poll ready to go in instances like this.
What is more likely to save your beloved [name HERE] show?
(a) A move to another broadcast network? (Scrubs!)
(b) A move to a cable network? (Law & Order:CI!)
(c) A big check from DirecTV? (Friday Night Lights!)
(d) A crazy cheap deal from its producers? (’Til Death!)
(e) Sending various articles of flotsam to the cruel taskmasters at [network HERE]? (Jericho!)
(f) None of the above
(f) None of the above!
Alex: first off, you need a BUYER.
Why was there no new ‘lie to me’?
Bill Gorman, with so much crap on tv, do you enjoy seeing good shows being cancelled? Seems like it.
Ricardo, he enjoys being right, and guess what? He’s right!
So much crap on TV doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if YOU or ME love Life way more than The Biggest Loser. What matters is The Biggest Loser mints cash (and doesn’t cost hardly anything to make either).
I watched last night’s episode of Life and savored it, but also loathed the oncoming train of unreasonable people who will act like Jeff Zucker walked into their house and shot their dog when Life gets cancelled. But he won’t have shot anyone’s dog, he’ll have just overseen the cancellation of a show that didn’t fare well.
BTW, how does one who lives in Portugal watch brand new episodes of Life the same night they air in the US? Do you get the NBC feed via satellite?
Dutchie: Blame Obama.
Bill,
With NBC’s problems, Zuck will be doing a lot of shooting.
Andrea, you’d imagine so, but NBC’s problems aren’t exactly new, and where has he been so far?
if Julia has her way he’ll be starring in the made-for-TV-movie, “Firing Silverman”
One of my professors disagrees with me. Whenever I go on about Silverman, she says it’s Zucker who should be fired. I’d be happy with either.
Over 20 million American viewers are brain washed idiots, I’m sorry but hey its the truth. How can someone watch a show where idiots judge other idiots? Oh yeah, the viewers are brainwashed so of course they find it entertaining.
Anyways, Lost is doing excellent for its 5th season. Theres so many changes to the show since its 1st season, it’s like a brand new show, it’s not just a show thats only about plain crashers and surviving. Alot of people don’t like these kinds of big plot changes so 9 million is really good.
Lost broke 10 million in the finals.
Go Lost!, Lost is the best show ever. Its the only TV show i watch!
Robert,
I know he is right. But being right doesn’t mean he should “mock any of you desperate fans (ok, maybe just a little)”. I’ll be bummed when Life gets canceled, but I will not flip out in any way, and would never support those who will. Still, I think seeing a good tv show vanish isn’t exactly my idea of a good time, even if it involves being right.
#”BTW, how does one who lives in Portugal watch brand new episodes of Life the same night they air in the US? Do you get the NBC feed via satellite?”
Good irony. No, sometimes I use a torrent, but mostly Hulu. I also “help” the show by buying the DVD and seeing a portuguese channel who airs Life (the first season). BTW, how do you know I live in Portugal?
How do you use Hulu when you are not in the US? An IP scrambler? I doubt that’s any more legal than a torrent.
What?!? No!! I use Hotspot Shield for reasons of safety! It’s not my fault it lets me use Hulu…
Kyle– I watch Lost AND American Idol. Never miss them. I think there are lots of us in both camps. When they air head to head, Idol gets me live (because of all the spoiler sites) and Lost gets me on DVR, where I can pay close attention, rewind on a spectacular scene, and totally revel in it. That slight rating drop you see last night was me and a million others just like me. We just watch Lost the next day or sometimes later the same night. You will see me and my million other friends who love both shows in the DVR+3 numbers later on.
there are programs that make Hulu work for non USA people
To Bill,
Or there’s…
g) Advertise Life to people that like cop shows. While at the same time explaining that Life is a cop show, because I know that there are a lot of people that don’t realize it. A quirky, but not too quirky, cop show.
Dreadful/horrible shows get low ratings, for obvious reasons. But Life isn’t a dreadful/horrible show. In fact, it’s a great show, so why does it get horrible ratings? I’m glad you asked!
It’s because the majority of the viewing public doesn’t have a clue that it’s a cop show. We know there are millions upon millions of people that love cop shows, so if Life were advertised to the correct target audience, it stands to reason that many more people would watch it, yes?
“Lifesavers”, that’s cute! I like it. Life is in trouble, it needs life support.
Speaking of support, to help in some small way, I like to go to the websites of TV shows I like. Now and then I will go to NBC.com, click on Life, look around, click on things there. It has to help, even if it’s just a little.
Bobbi, At least all the things I listed in my faux poll have actually worked, at least once. “Promoting our show differently” has no chance to save a show with bad results this late in a season.
Bobbi, you’re right, many people don’t know Life is a cop show. I think they should renew Life, start a new storyline (end the one of the LA bank) and advertise the hell out of it. I bet it would have a huge bump in the ratings.
Robert, by jove, I think you’ve finally narrowed it down into historical accuracy! This is not to say that “Life” will be going to cable. Certainly not to USA. USA has two of the biggest hits on cable (”Psych” and “Burn Notice”). What do they need this for? So they can have a show even lower-rated than “The Starter Wife?”
(P.S. In the event that you cannot get Simon to deliver the insult-o-gram, can you have Anil do it? As an amateur singer, gosh, I can’t figure out why I’d rather watch a show that spotlights amateur singers. I mean, here I could be watching some drivel about polar bears on deserted islands. And then the oh-so-valuable 12-14 demographic would think I’m smart and stuff on the internetz.)
“Lost broke 10 million in the finals.”
Excellent.